<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Lockbox by Charlotte_Lancer</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22995976">Lockbox</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer'>Charlotte_Lancer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Permanently Unfinished [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Justice League Action (Cartoon), Superman - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Hostage Situations, Humor, In which I mix like seven continuities and also borrow a villain from Shazam, M/M, Not Beta Read, Plot, Trapped in space, very light slash like you could basically ignore one line and have gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 07:55:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,003</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22995976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Mr. Mind's latest plan requires him to stick Superman somewhere out of the way. And if Batman gets dragged along for the ride, too? Well, bonus.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clark Kent &amp; Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Permanently Unfinished [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/818400</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bruce came to on a hard, cold surface, with one glove missing, a pounding headache, and no memory of how he’d gotten there.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A fight. They- he and Clark- had been fighting off Mr. Mind’s latest attempt to take over the earth, which likely explained the glove and the headache, but they’d been in a field when Mr. Mind had shown up and started the attack.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He forced open his eyes to look around. Definitely not a field.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A solid metal cell, with walls welded firmly to the floor and ceiling. One vent, with air being forced through it and into the cell. A cardboard box labelled “supplies” in bright red letters.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>A single heavily-reinforced window on one wall, with a view that looked alarmingly like the middle of space, with a suspiciously earth-like planet shrinking in the distance.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark lying next to him, still unconscious, half-covered by his red cape. Bruce moved closer to Clark, and drew aside the cape from where it covered his face.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark was breathing, which was a relief despite Clark not strictly needing to breathe. His pulse seemed normal enough as well, but the fact that he was still out while Bruce was up and moving was in itself a cause for concern.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>It meant that Mr. Mind either had access to Kryptonite, or something else powerful enough to take Superman out as if he were a civilian off of the street.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>After checking Clark’s vital signs again, Bruce dragged the cardboard box over to where he could go through it and keep an eye on Clark, and began cataloging.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Whichever one of Mr. Mind’s associates had outfitted the box seemed to have only had a very passing familiarity with humanity, though- the box contained, among other things, several pounds of uncooked potatoes with no source of heat, two gallons of neon blue “fruit” juice, a roll of novelty toilet paper printed with the face of a former politician, and seven copies of Animal Farm, one of which was in French.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Regardless, it seemed that Mr. Mind had intended for Bruce to survive for at least a short while. Unfortunately, Bruce had a sinking suspicion that this wasn’t a benevolent move on his part- as long as Bruce was alive, Clark couldn’t melt or break his way out of this cell without basically guaranteeing Bruce’s death-by-space-exposure at the same time. And with Superman neatly out of the way in a metal cube floating in space, Mr. Mind was free to exact his plan with far too little opposition.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>And until someone else noticed Mr. Mind, no one would know they had been taken, because Bruce had told Alfred not to expect him back that night. Great. Next time Clark wanted to have a picnic, it was going to be in the cafeteria of the Watchtower.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>By Bruce’s estimate, it was about half an hour later when Clark finally began to stir.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark stretched out on the floor, still half-asleep, before sitting up slightly and opening his eyes. He froze when he saw the wall in front of him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce shifted his position, intentionally making noise to alert Clark to his presence.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark looked at him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Where are we?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce glanced towards the single window. “Space. Far enough from Earth to not be impacted by its gravity. We’re drifting further away, but the limited field of view makes it difficult to say in which direction.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark looked out the window for a moment, considering.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We’re too far from Earth for me too safely break us out of here. Do we have any way to contact the League?”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce shook his head. “Not unless you can figure something out with-” Bruce reached down to rummage through the box sitting next to him, “a Russian word-of-the-day calendar from 2012, and,” he reached in again, “Whatever </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> is.” He held up a piece of molded green rubber that vaguely resembled a cat. Clark wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“So, we have options to work with, then.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce glared, but was cut off from saying anything by the tinny sound of a speaker crackling to life. With a flash of white, the window began displaying an image of Mr. Mind, close to opaque but still just transparent enough that stars were still visible behind him.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Mr. Mind laughed, the sound distorted through the hidden speakers. “Oh, what a wonderful sight! Superman </span>
  <em>
    <span>and Batman</span>
  </em>
  <span>, trapped in my own invention, and not a thing you can do to escape. I truly </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> the greatest criminal mind this world has ever seen.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce hadn’t known that a worm could look smug, but Mr. Mind was managing it.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“But, of course, there’s no time for gloating when there’s a world to be destroyed. Say goodbye to your Earth, boys, because you won’t recognise it when you get back.” The screen blinked to black as if it were a television from the 50’s, and a metal shield slid down on the outside of the window, blocking all view of Earth and space.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>
    <span>When</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Mr. Mind had said </span>
  <em>
    <span>when</span>
  </em>
  <span> they got back to Earth, which meant he either planned to bring them back himself, or expected someone else to find them relatively quickly. Bruce resolved to be wary of setups if it were the latter; it wouldn’t be unlike Mind to have their imprisonment double as bait for another plot.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce briefly considered returning the favor if they ever escaped. Surely Damian would enjoy an intelligent worm as a pet.</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>He pushed the thought aside, and turned to Clark. “If he can see us through this system, there may be a way to use it to send a message of our own. X-ray the walls, see if you can see where the wires are.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>Clark nodded, then shook his head. “It’s no use, the walls are made of lead, or at least lined with it.”</span>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Then we’ll have to find them the hard way,” Bruce said, reaching for a pouch on his utility belt.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am fairly new to this fandom, so please feel free to point out if I've got something wrong or made someone particularly OOC.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>